Okay, okay, one more Key & Peele skit before bed.

You know for whom you should *never* try to throw a surprise party?

😂 Anyone in this line of work. #Humour

Night, CoSo!
https://youtu.be/h0vkN7udQoo

There's someone I read every time they share their thoughts online, and every time I do I see how much they're caught in a really painful loop.

It sucks so much to be trapped in a way of thinking one can't escape (I've been caught in loops myself), but it's especially hard to see others caught, knowing that they have to a) recognize that they *are* in a loop, b) want to leave it, and c) make the first leap themselves.

It's so hard to give up what is familiar, though--even if it's killing you.

Second-round rejection for Grist's Imagine 2200 Contest. That means I pleased at least one slush reader, but not the judges - which doesn't surprise me, since the story isn't *quite* as tech-optimist as I think they're looking for.

Now to figure out where on Earth to send a story like this next...

(Or just make it free-to-read, if no good fit comes to mind in the next while.)

Plenty of other work to finish and send into submission queues!

#WritingCommunity #WritersOfCoSo

Today for Tough Times Tuesday, we unpack a messy economic topic that has been such good fodder for clickbait.

Recent talk of price-fixing, price-gouging, and underlying anxieties about inflation and antitrust actions have made for a perfect storm of disempowered market participants and economic analysis that fixates on how "everyone else is wrong".

How do we build a media ecosystem that encourages knowledge-sharing in a useful way instead?

#Economics #MediaLiteracy
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/the-loaded-language-of-price-fixing

Also, I made oatmeal cookies last night, which means I am having the "best" meal this morning after coming out of the rain. 🙂 #AGoodDay

Sadly, my new #BugFriend isn't supposed to be here. It's an invasive species in the region, so sightings have to be reported. 😥 I ain't usually a snitch, but sometimes it's necessary.

DON'T EAT IT, @CanisPundit! Dogs and shells don't mix. 🙃

New #BugFriend just dropped! 😍

Look at this absolute unit, trucking along in the gentle rain with its shell all a-glistening. My favourite litle self-made homeowner-on-the-go. #Nature

First task of the new school year complete: messages sent to all my nephews, wishing them Great Success and gently reminding them that I'm on hand for homework help if they need it.

Two are going back to school for the first time in a while, which is *such* a relief (homeschooling standards are too lax in Ontario), but boy howdy, I would never in a million years want to be a teen or preteen again. The drama! 😬 So much performative stress!

Hope everyone else's Yutes start the school year well.

Rainy morning. Not sure if I can run (depends on ground conditions), but I can go for a walk in the rain, at least.

Morning tune for a dark and drizzly start of day - the kind where you take with you into the shadows everyone you've ever been. #CoSoMusic
https://youtu.be/nlBaDgmPXrQ

I think this is appropriate for a sign-off tonight. Thanks for the memories, James Darren (a.k.a. Vic Fontaine). #StarTrek

https://youtu.be/q0fI6SR6Qow

My ears have *almost* stopped ringing in time for The Cookie-ening, which is taking place via videochat so I can walk someone else through the recipe (and catch up). Now let's just hope those trucks were "one and done" and don't have a return route planned. 🤞🏻

Oh goodie, a late afternoon tootening.

Not like I was trying to concentrate or anything. 😅

#Colombia
#ILoveYouButSometimes...

Once, while helping my then-four-year-old nephew clean his room, we came upon a framed photo under the clutter.

"That's my dad," he said (his parents having separated). "I look at that sometimes when I want to cry." He took a moment with it, then placed it on a bedside shelf and went back to cleaning.

I think about that day sometimes when I read the news.

"That's my world," I think. "I check in on it sometimes when I want to cry."

Then I put it back on its shelf and carry on. #BackToWork

This week, we're tackling a lot of socioeconomic themes for Better Worlds Theory - some of which dovetail nicely into sci-fi chats.

Today, for instance, two Alien films spanning 45 years offer a haunting reminder that the greatest threat in our lives has never really been alien to us: it lies in the relentless overreach of corporations much closer to home.

#LabourDay #SFF #Economics #Film

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/oh-how-blue-collar-work-has-changed

😅 Oh, you know it's a bad financial practice when even Bloomberg's podcast team is calling it out with titles like this.

(Should be a great episode for today's run, though. I always have better run-times when I'm cranky about economics!)

Tomorrow, it's back to my newsletters. A whole week of SF and class issues!

Monday Media Review:

Representations of working class labour in Alien (1979) and Romulus (2024).

Tough Times Tuesday:

Price-gouging and other recent perils of monopoly.

Rewind Wednesday:

Internal displacement, incarceration, and the Bell Riots.

Thorough Thursday:

A deeper factual inaccuracy in SF disaster films.

The "break" (for other work) was fun, but I'm itching to get back in the news-y saddle.

Night, CoSo!

All right. Enough dawdling. I have another book to read before end-of-day.

Can... can I post a recently uploaded shot of Curiosity's 42 Drill Holes without people here getting weird about it?

I just thought the variations were neat. #Mars #Space

TTFN, nutters!